The Old Half-Blood Hill
by TreySabre
Summary: This is a heroes story, set five years before the protective tree of Thalia guarded the borders of Camp Half-Blood. At this time it was much more like military than it was a summer camp, following an original character that will eventually be placed into the original books. I hope I can put forward some compelling, yet relatable story, as it will be in the eyes of a teenager.
1. Chapter 1

_Oh where to start on stories such as these…_

 _They already know what story is, you don't need to sound so vague._

 _And they asked for a story, specifically one of heroes._

 _Yes…. But do they know of the tragedy involved in these great tales of valor, and sacrifice?_

"I know sacrifice, and I know valor, tell me of your most tragic story."

 _I had a feeling they would ask for that._

 _Obviously they would, now I believe we must get started._

 _This is the story of Tyler Hochberg._

The day started like any other, Tyler woke up, staring at his ceiling, and he slid off his bed and stretched, going over to his dresser to put on proper attire for school. Tyler looked atop his dresser at the model airplanes that lay there, gifts to him from his late mother, before she died in child birth.

 _*Knock Knock*_ "Tyler?"

"Yes dad?" Tyler responded.

"I'm off to work; can you lock up the house when you leave?"

"Of course, I do every morning."

James Hochberg walked down the hallway with the distinct sound of his cane, he wasn't old, he had suffered grievous wounds to the entire right side of his body, and while it has been years since it allegedly happened, he still hasn't healed fully. The weird part was that all of the damage was internal; there was no evidence of damage on the surface, which always made Tyler wonder how he acquired these wounds.

But Mr. Hochberg never explained in great detail, his eyes would always just fall and he'd dodge the subject. Despite secrets like this being between him and his son, he was still a great father, but Tyler felt the reason he wasn't told was because of a lack of trust, and this waned on his heart.

Tyler looked at the clock, and quickly got dressed, freshened up, and gathered his school supplies. Afterwards he left through the front door, and locked the door behind him, then made his way to his school. It was nothing special, just a public High-school, which he was attending his junior year.

"Why hello, Ty." Said an ominous voice.

I looked to the house closest to me, recognizing it, and the voice that came from it.

"Hey John." Tyler said.

"You know, you're no fun at all." He replied as he came out from behind a nearby bush.

He often tried to scare people, just to make them jump or whatever. But either way, he'd been friends with him for years, something Tyler never really had before. Just like Tyler, Jonathan Stewart had dyslexia and ADHD, which prohibited many learning abilities, which of course warranted judgment from others, but definitely more severely on Tyler.

John, after all, was a very popular student; he was their schools quarterback of all things. Among other popular kids and respected by virtually everyone, nobody really mentioned his disabilities except as a throwaway insult whenever playful banter broke out.

For Tyler it was a very different story, having no extracurricular activity to his name. He wasn't publicly shunned by the others, but he knew it was there. You see, he spent his spare time at a Jiu-Jitsu "Dojo", or practicing at his house. Why does he spend so much time there? He was bullied during his freshman year, always coming home with a bruise here or there.

Tyler finally had enough and practiced a grappling martial art, after only a few classes he finally stood up to his bully… And accidentally broke his arm. He got carried away, after so long of being attacked he finally had the upper hand, and pulled on his arm bar a little too hard.

Ever since he did Jiu-Jitsu he never stopped, he hadn't been so good at something in a while, and martial arts students won't judge you for having a hard time reading or never standing still. In fact, the latter was speculated to actually help him in fights.

"You're coming to the game later, right?" John asked. "It's against those filthy Leopards."

"Yeah certainly, I'll head over as soon as I'm done wi-"

"You and your Jiu-Jitsu, nobody has ever thought to fight you ever since you broke one of the biggest guys at schools arm, not to mention ended his chances at being a professional basketball player."

"I know… but I really enjoy being there, I feel like I finally have a talent, and people who won't judge me for my academics…. Lacking."

"Well… get there as soon as you can. We haven't had such a big game in a while."

It took all of five more minutes before we made it to school, and started the boring routines of it, not to mention stressful. It felt like hours before the lunch bell finally went off, but it did, and Tyler was ready to meet with John at the cafeteria. They didn't share any classes being that John was a senior, and Tyler was a junior.

Tyler made his way to the table they always sit at, and was surprised to see John there… with a girl. She was likely a cheer leader based off of her posture, and that would explain how they knew each other.

Tyler let out a deep sigh and looked around for another table to sit at, but he couldn't find one.

"Tyler!" John called out as he beckoned him over.

Tyler and John had a brief moment of a silent conversation.

" _Really?"_ Tyler's face said.

" _You know me!"_ John's smug face said.

Tyler sat down, awkwardly I might add. He wasn't used to the presence of a pretty girl, much less one that sat at the same table as him. Tyler was an introvert to be sure, and a reserved one at that.

"So this is Katie L- um… I totally forgot your last name, Katie." John said

"Lambert." She said, her voice was quite beautiful.

"Uh… hi, I'm Tyler" Tyler said as he held out his hand to shake hers

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow, then slowly shook his hand. Then she went back to her meal.

"Sorry, Tyler isn't exactly good at meeting people!" John said as he nudged him.

 _Probably for the best that he cracks a joke after that, makes it less awkward._ Tyler thought.

"Anyway, I met her a couple days ago, and she's new around here so I was like 'Well, if you need someone to sit with at lunch, my friend Tyler and I are alone.' And I guess this is the first day she's taken me up on the offer." John explained. "I found out that she has dyslexia and ADHD as well! So we can be misfits together."

"If I'm a misfit, then why do I have to dodge so many guys trying to hit on me?" Katie said. "That's one of the only reasons I'm sitting here, is because you guys aren't desperate."

What's so funny is that Tyler could already feel his stomach churn; he was beginning to like her. But he kept convincing himself that he was going crazy and that it wasn't anything serious.

"And maybe because you get the privilege of sitting with the star quarterback." John said, with a fake boastful voice.

"Right, that's probably it." Katie replied in a sarcastic voice.

This semester was certainly going to be interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

You'd be surprised how much you could get to know someone in only two months, as it turned out, Katie and Tyler had quite a lot in common. But Tyler being so off balance because of his feelings made normal conversation difficult, and getting to know her only compounded his emotions for her.

Granted, this awkwardness became much harder to detect over time, as it became the normal Tyler to not be great at conversation, not that he was all that great in the first place. Thus he flew under the radar, for better or for worse.

Tyler found out that Katie's mom had walked out on her dad, which has similar effects to losing your mother right after she gives birth to you. However, her dad was much more distant than his was, so she had to rely on others for life lessons and teachings, and that meant learning the hard way.

He also found out she had a knack for reading, which he did as well, and they exchanged books often and shared thoughts on them. These subjects were easier for Tyler to talk about, since he always thought about the books, and discussing them wasn't all that different. Not to mention it gave Tyler more books to read, since he got to take a gander at her collection.

This is all without even mentioning Tyler's mental state, because he was almost incoherent, but he was good at hiding it. He would often have such nervous butterflies in his stomach that it would hurt, to the point he'd need home treatment to alleviate it, he would also find himself out of breath just laying down because of how fast his heart beat in his chest.

He ultimately didn't want to impose himself on her, he was respectable like that, and he didn't want to push her the wrong way, or make things awkward between them. So he just kept his thoughts and feelings to himself, and hoped nobody would find out.

Meanwhile, Tyler had gotten his Purple belt in Jiu-Jitsu, which probably kept most people even farther away from him than before. Tyler was largely okay with this, he didn't like dealing with the drama involved in fake people, or judgmental people.

Tyler sat down alone, as usual, at John's championship game, though when he did, he felt like he was being watched from somewhere. He checked his surroundings, nothing. He looked at John, who was talking to the coach of his team. He looked around for Katie but couldn't find her, until he at last saw a figure, so far away in the distance he could barely make out any details.

She was on the horizon, far outside of the High-School football stadium. She looked quite old; she also wore a brown dress, and had the faintest glow of green around her face. Tyler tried to see more, but then…

"Are you all ready?!" Yelled the announcer.

Cheering erupted from the bleachers after that announcement, people stood up and yelled, waving signs around, and clapping. This blocked Tyler's view of the woman in the distance, and when he looked back to where she was, she was gone, as if she was never there.

"Please welcome the guests today, the opponents of us Eagles and local rivals, the Leopards!"

People who attended my school started booing, while people on the other side of the bleachers were cheering. The rival team came out from the side of the field, and started waving to their side of the crowd; some even started flexing and yelling war cries.

"And your favorite team, the Eagles!"

The crowds' enthusiasm was unrivaled; the cheering was so loud it could've awoken the dead. Tyler stood up and cheered as well, he saw John doing his thing, waving his arms to the crowd to signal them to cheer louder.

Tyler soon stopped paying attention to John when he saw Katie and the rest of the cheerleaders come out, and start doing a dance routine. His eyes remained glued to her for a while before he realized what he was doing; he quickly sat down and looked away. Fortunately it was easy to blend in when everyone around you was cheering like roman gladiator goers.

The game kicked off, and largely had a bad start, you see, the Eagles were known for its incredible offense, but the Leopards were also known for this, however, the Eagles defense left much to be desired, unlike the Leopards.

The game went on, and things started turning for the better after half time, maybe it was the audience cheering for us and booing for them, maybe the other team was getting tired, who knows. Either way, we went from being behind to being neck and neck.

Not that Tyler noticed much of the individual plays; he was having a hard time not staring at Katie. He thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world, and despite his will to see John in his most important game, his will to look upon her was just a little bit greater.

"HE'S DONE IT! A SUCCESSFUL HAIL MARY BY THE EAGLES!" The announcer shouted

The crowd was on its feet and running onto the field, the timer slowly dwindled away as the Eagles just won it all. People started congratulating their friends on the field, shaking the other teams' hands as they disappointedly walked off the field.

John of course was in the center of the crowd as they raised him off of his feet and onto their shoulders as they chanted his name for such an incredible throw. Tyler caught John's eye and waved to him, with a shy smile on his face for being amongst such a crowd. John's smile faded and he was trying to scramble free of his teammates grasp, but he couldn't.

Tyler could see John virtually whenever he wanted, so he didn't want to keep him away from his friends. Tyler slowly walked off the field in solitude, the chanting of the crowd slowly fading behind him.

"That's a mighty large party you're going to miss out on." Said an unfamiliar voice.

Tyler spun around, for he had not heard this figure creep up on him. He saw a tall man, with blonde hair and strangely casual attire for his age. This guy seemed like the kind of guy that models for clothes or something, so why he's at a random high-school in California baffled Tyler.

"Who are you?" Tyler asked.

"I'm… a friend of John's you might say." Said the man, it seemed he had no intention of telling me who he really was, so Tyler decided to ask other things as well.

 _Why I am not surprised John has friends that are as well off as this man, perhaps, because he's better than me in every way._

"Then why are you talking to me?"

"I might need to call in a favor from you, I believe John's in danger, and that his life will likely take a turn soon, as well as you I suppose."

"If he's in danger, why don't you call the police?"

"I don't think the police would understand this case very well, they don't understand much."

"Well what was the favor you wanted from me then?"

"Take this to him." He brandished a backpack and tossed it to Tyler. "He'll know what to do… eventually."

Tyler snatched it out of the air, and marveled at how light it was.

"Is this empty?" Tyler inquired

"In a way, I suppose, just take it to him and I won't bother you again."

"Fair enough."

Tyler inspected the backpack once more, and made sure there was nothing in it, while keeping a careful eye on his surroundings and the mysterious man. For all he knows he wanted to mug him for… no reason, Tyler wasn't wearing nice clothes or anything.

Tyler then walked back into the stadium and found it empty, no signs of our team, or the other. There was a gentle breeze, and the sun was setting, it was strangely quiet. He followed where the group was hauling John to, the locker rooms.

Tyler walked in and found John was the only person in there, he was tying his shoes on, and was now in his normal clothes, rather than football gear.

"Where's everyone else?" Tyler asked

"I told them to go on ahead, and that I'd catch up." John replied.

"Why not go and be with your friends?"

John was silent for a moment, and then he opened his mouth as if to say something, and then took a breath. He then finally said:

"Who was that man you were with?"

"What?"

"After the game, behind you, there was a man right behind you."

"I wasn't sitting with anyone, and I didn't talk to anyone until after I left the stadium."

"Who did you talk to?"

"I don't know, some guy who was tall-"

"Did he look like this?" John held out a picture.

Tyler inspected it "Yeah, this is him."

John looked away, very clearly displeased.

"What is it?" Tyler said.

"That's my father." John replied very bluntly, despite the fact that Tyler had already met his father, he didn't seem like he was lying.

"No it's not, I've met your father and-"

"No you haven't, not until now."

"What do you mean?"

"Ty, I've never told this to anyone..." John said "I'm actually adopted, and my adoptive parents look enough like me to just… pass it off, so I did."

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" Tyler asked

"I didn't want anyone to know… even you, it's a hard part of my memory… but when I was four, my dad walked out on my mom, and in her grief, she committed suicide, right in front of me."

"I'm… I'm so sorry…."

"It's not your fault, but why is he back now? Now that I've been forced to move on, now that I don't have my own mother, and my father couldn't care to raise me, or even provide me with a roof over my head."

"He told me to give you this…" Tyler pulled out the backpack.

"What is this?"

"I asked him the same thing, but he was awfully vague in everything he said, it's completely empty." John looked inside for himself and too found it was empty.

"Well that's nice, don't hear from him for 13 years and all he gives me is an empty backpack."

"I'm sorry all this happened, today of all days."

"Its fine, it's in the past, and I don't really care about him anymore"

John and Tyler walked in silence as they made their way to the after party, which was usually held at a nearby park. Katie was waiting for them outside of the locker rooms, and she greeted them as they exited.

"What took you so long?" Katie asked. "I thought only girls spent 15 minutes changing."

"Ha-ha, very funny" John said. "I was just taking my time."

"Well you can take your time when we're at the party, how am I supposed to get to know the fools that attend this school when I'm either in class or talking to you guys?" Katie said.

"Well it's not such a curse not knowing the fools and only knowing me." John said with his ever sarcastic boasting.

Katie just rolled her eyes and scoffed, as the three of them talked about the highlights of the game on their way to the nearby park. Tyler of course didn't have too much to add, not only because of his introverted nature, but because he wasn't watching the game too much.

As they entered the far side of the park, they could hear the sound of people laughing, shouting, talking, and the general sound of people. Suddenly John stumbled backwards and almost hit the ground, as if someone pulled on his shoulders from behind.

"What on earth?" John said in surprise as he took off the backpack, which had new weight in it. When he set it down, it made a metallic clang. Tyler and Katie looked at each other with curiosity, and then looked back at John.

"What happened?" Tyler asked.

"Are you alright?" Katie said right after.

John opened up the backpack, and found three bronze short-swords, a map, a plastic bag full of cash, another plastic bag filled with some type of food, and a small golden device that had a sticky note attached to it, that read:

 _Use this when in need!_

"What is all of this?" John asked rhetorically. "It wasn't in here before."

"Sssssssshiny isssssn't it?" Said a voice.

Everyone popped up and started looking around for the source of the sound, it wasn't human, and that's for sure. Then a dark figure emerged from under the darkness of a tree.

"Right here, foolssss." Said the figure.

Everyone looked towards it, but they couldn't tell who, or what, it was. John was the first to speak up.

"Who are you?"

"That'ssss none of your bussssinesss." It replied. "Now if you'll jusssst be cooperative and come with usssss, which would do wondersss."

At the mention of "Us" Tyler looked around once more, and found that there were at least six other… things… around them, what's more is they all seemed to be holding weapons of some kind, swords, axes, hammers, spears.

"Guys." Tyler said as he gestured around them.

"Now if you'll come quietly, we'll ssspare your livesss."

Conveniently, the figures had snuck up on them when they were under a lamp post, so they couldn't get too much closer before they could start making out details of these horrific creatures. They had normal torsos, but their legs were that of a snake's tail. They had the same bronze armor that was made of the swords in their backpack, and their various weapons were bronze as well.

In case that wasn't shocking enough, they were advancing as if they meant to do some real harm. The one that spoke first, apparently their leader, said.

"That'ssss it, jussst ssstay there and we'll bring you to our missstresss."

This snapped them out of their daze of fear, their instincts started to kick in as they realized if they didn't do something fast, they'd most surely be killed… Or worse. And since none of them were good with the sword, they elected to run, John grabbing the backpack off the ground as they ran.

The two creatures closest to the way they were running moved to block their escape, but John did a spin, much like the football move, to evade. Katie did a massive leap over their heads, as they were only about five feet tall; she only barely cleared them between their shoulders.

Tyler slid and implemented his knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu, grabbing its snakelike leg and pulling it to the ground, before promptly standing up and running away, as he ran, he suddenly felt a searing pain in his right shoulder.

The creature next to the one Tyler took down seized the opportunity of Tyler standing up to stab him in his back with its spear, but only scored a glancing hit, but still hurt like the devil. Tyler gasped and nearly lost his footing, but he kept going.

The way these creatures looked, you'd think they'd be slow, but they were just as fast as any normal person. However, they weren't as good at climbing as a normal person, which the three teens noticed when they jumped and climbed a wall to evade them.

They jumped on the other side of the wall, and found themselves in a person's backyard; they quickly exited and kept running perpendicular to where the snakes had been chasing them. They found themselves some distance away before they stopped.

Tyler collapsed onto his hands and knees, and then sat down. He'd never lost any significant amount of blood before, even if he did, he probably wouldn't run the way he did with an open wound.

"Tyler?" John asked.

Tyler shifted to show the wound in his back, which stained his newly ripped shirt red.

John's eyes widened as he realized what was going on, and quickly ran over and dropped the backpack, hoping he could find something of use in it. To his surprise, the mysterious food also had a note on it, which he'd missed before.

 _Eat only one square if you've acquired any injuries!_

John immediately opened the bag and tore one off.

"Eat this!" John said, as if he knew for sure it'd help.

Tyler didn't question it, meeting snake people had suspended his disbelief, and his best friend asking him to eat unknown food wasn't as weird as that.

He took a bite and was surprised that it tasted like his father's brownies, and it's not like his father bought them from a store, they were always home-made. As he ate the entire piece given to him, he started to feel less pain, and less exhausted.

Katie inspected his back and saw it was completely closed, as if he'd never been struck in the first place, she saw this and pointed John to the wound.

"Look, it's gone!" Katie said.

"I smell them!" Yelled a distant snake person. "Over here!"

The teens looked at each other and ran next to the wall, which shaded them, concealing them. All the while John was clutching the device that was in the backpack.

The snake that had smelt them came into view, followed by others. They made sure to remain absolutely still and silent, but the snakes weren't looking or listening for them, they were sniffing for them.

The snakes walked up and down the street, and one stopped near a blood stain on the sidewalk, and grunted.

"Clearly they've left!" It said

"They couldn't have! I can ssssmell them-." The snake finally pinpointed their location. "Right here!" It yelled. It advanced at them with frightening speed.

John had an itchy trigger finger, and clutched the device with an iron grip, which must've caused it to activate, because in no less than a second, the teens disappeared.


End file.
